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Tuesday, September 13, 2016

#1717: Kristan Hawkins

Kristan Hawkins is a vocal representative of Students for Life of America and one of the more vocal and influential pro-life campaigners out there. Now,
as we have said before, it is possible to have serious philosophical debate
about the moral dimensions of abortion, but Hawkins has as much to contribute
to that debate as a young-earth creationist have to contribute to modern
biology. Hawkins is the kind of abortion opponent who claims that Planned Parenthood is some sort of all-powerful “abortion Goliath” that not
only possesses immense political power (used to subsidize abortions) but
conspires to get girls pregnant (by distributing harmful and malfunctioning
contraception) so that they will later be forced to have abortions (getting
breast cancer on the way) – all in an effort to maximize profits, which is
their goal. Indeed, it is one of her “ugly truths” about Planned Parenthood: Abortion
is a big business that profits from a woman’s crisis, and Planned Parenthood
makes millions of dollars: 92% of Planned Parenthood’s business was abortions,
and they even have abortion quotas, according to Hawkins. None of the claims have anything whatsoever to do with reality,
of course.

Oh, and Planned Parenthood is also a racist business that “promotes and covers up” statutory rape and aids sex
traffickers. And they support sexual education and birth control only to
convince young women to have premarital sex and then spend money on STD tests,
treatment and, of course, abortions. No wonder she and her group have made taking out Planned Parenthood one of
their primary goals.

Diagnosis: Stock conspiracy theories, really, and not much
different from militia sympathizers raging about the IRS and the Illuminati –
except that Hawkins and her groups have quite a bit of influence and political
clout among fundies.